From AMH 0.10 to 0.05: How I Conceived Naturally After Fearing My Fertility Window Had Closed — Our Co-Founder Nahid's Fertility Story

I was 28 when I had my first child, a son. Conceiving him took about a month, the pregnancy was smooth, and I didn't have to think about fertility as a "topic" at all — it just happened. So when we finally felt ready to try for a second, almost six years later, I assumed the same story would repeat itself.

It didn't. And the version of it that actually unfolded — two AMH results moving in the wrong direction, a scan that showed almost no follicles left, and months of not knowing whether my body still had a natural pregnancy in it — is the story I want to tell here. Not because it proves anything works. Because I think a lot of women are sitting exactly where I sat, and no one told me what that would actually feel like.

"It happened easily the first time. I assumed it would again."

My son is seven now. Getting pregnant with him took no real effort, and the nine months that followed were uneventful in the best possible way. I didn't take anything, track anything unusual, or worry about anything. As someone who now spends her career helping other women through fertility struggles, I want to be honest that my own first experience gave me zero preparation for what came next.

We started trying for a second baby around December 2023, into January 2024. I expected some version of the same story — maybe not a month this time, but nothing dramatic.

The conversation with my mother that changed everything

Month after month passed with nothing to show for it. I wasn't panicking yet, but I was starting to pay attention.

Then, in an ordinary conversation, I asked my mother why she'd never had a third child. She told me they had actually tried — it just hadn't happened. Around the same time, I remembered that one of my aunts had gone through something similar: two children, and then an unsuccessful attempt at a third.

That's what pushed me to get my AMH tested. Not a symptom, not advice from a doctor — a pattern in my own family that I couldn't ignore once I noticed it.

"My AMH came back at 0.10. I was terrified."

I ordered the test myself, the way I've ordered it for clients more times than I can count. In August 2024, the result came back: 0.10 ng/mL.

I knew, clinically, exactly what that number could mean. A result that low often leads doctors toward a conversation about IVF or fertility preservation, depending on the full clinical picture. I had explained that same context to other women many times, calmly, professionally.

None of that professional distance was available to me when it was my own name on the report. For the first time in my career, I wasn't the person interpreting the result for someone else. I was the one sitting with it.

"I decided to work on what I could control."

Starting in September 2024, regardless of what the number meant, I got deliberate about the things that were actually within my influence. I started strength training. I paid real attention to my nutrition and overall health.

That same period was genuinely hard on my body in other ways, too. I went through a stretch of significant stress and was diagnosed with hypertension, along with some frightening episodes of heart palpitations. I was put on medication and monitored by my doctor. It wasn't just a fertility story happening in isolation — it was one difficult chapter of health layered on top of another.

"My AMH had gone from 0.10 to 0.05. My heart sank."

In October, we repeated the test. Instead of holding steady, or even fluctuating in a way that felt neutral, my AMH had dropped again — to 0.05.

I remember exactly what that did to me. I started genuinely wondering whether I was heading into perimenopause, and whether a natural second pregnancy might no longer be possible for me at all. Knowing the science didn't protect me from that fear. If anything, it made the fear more specific — I could picture exactly what the number meant instead of imagining something vaguer and less frightening.

A 45-day cycle, a negative test, and a scan that scared me more than the number had

Not long after, my periods became irregular — one cycle stretched to almost 45 days. For a moment, I let myself hope: maybe this was it. I took a test. It was negative.

I went to my gynecologist, who prescribed medication to help regulate the cycle and recommended an antral follicle count — an ultrasound that looks directly at how many small follicles are visible in the ovaries at that point in the cycle.

The scan showed one ovary with no visible follicles at all, and the other with only two or three.

I asked my doctor directly: does this mean I need IVF? She was honest — she said the findings could reasonably support considering it. But she also told me, clearly, not to panic, and to keep focusing on my overall health and stress levels while we figured out next steps.

That conversation is the one I keep coming back to. I couldn't change what the scan showed. I could still decide what I did with the months in front of me.

What I actually did in the months that followed

I want to be specific here, because vague wellness advice isn't useful to a woman staring at a scan like mine.

I became more intentional about my nutrition — building meals around protein and vegetables rather than eating reactively, the way my own busy schedule had let me do for years. I started taking supplements that were relevant to what my labs and history actually indicated, rather than anything speculative. I kept up consistent strength training. And I paid deliberate attention to my mental health and stress load, because by that point it was obvious how much the two were tangled together for me.

None of this was framed, even to myself, as a way to "raise my AMH" or guarantee a pregnancy. I had already learned, professionally, that there's no reliable way to do either. It was simply the healthiest version of my life I knew how to build, while I kept working with my doctor rather than instead of her.

Getting sick, and then February 1st

January brought its own setback — I became seriously unwell and ended up in the hospital, needing antibiotics. It was a difficult month physically, on top of everything else.

By February 1st, I still hadn't gotten my period. Over the previous months I'd bought pregnancy test after pregnancy test, and watched a negative line show up more times than I want to count — each one landing harder than the last.

That evening, we had my sister-in-law's wedding to attend. Almost as an afterthought, I took another test before getting ready.

It was positive.

I tested again the next day. Positive again. My gynecologist repeated the bloodwork, including hCG, and confirmed it. I was pregnant.

What I want to be careful to say — and not say — about what happened next

My pregnancy, from that point, was smooth. No major complications. A healthy baby. My daughter is eleven months old now, and there are days I still think about the woman who sat with a 0.05 AMH result and a scan showing almost no visible follicles, convinced her window might already have closed.

Here is the part I want to say as plainly as I can, because I think it matters more than anything else in this article: I don't know why I conceived naturally. I didn't repeat my AMH test afterward and watch the number climb — I have no evidence it changed at all, and I'm not going to imply that it did. Nutrition didn't reverse my ovarian reserve. Strength training didn't undo what the scan showed. I can't tell you that any single thing I did "worked," because that isn't something I — or the current research — can honestly claim.

What I can tell you is that I gave my body the best foundation I knew how to build, I stayed under my doctor's care the entire time rather than trying to manage things on my own, and my particular story happened to include a natural pregnancy. Your timeline, if you're in a similar position, may look nothing like mine.

What the science actually says about AMH like mine

Let me put my nutrition-professional hat back on, because I think this is the part that gets least explained to women handed a result like 0.10, or 0.05, or a scan showing very few follicles.

AMH and antral follicle count both measure egg quantity, not quality. They estimate how many eggs are likely left, not how genetically or developmentally healthy those remaining eggs are. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) has been explicit that AMH is a marker of oocyte quantity, and that its relationship with outcomes like pregnancy and live birth is, at best, weak (ASRM Practice Committee, 2020).

Low AMH does not reliably predict whether you can conceive naturally. A large U.S. cohort study of women aged 30–44 who were just starting to try to conceive found that women with low AMH (below 0.7 ng/mL) had conception rates over 12 monthly cycles that were statistically no different from women with normal AMH (Steiner et al., JAMA, 2017). ASRM's own guidance echoes this: ovarian reserve markers, on their own, "do not predict current reproductive potential" in women who haven't yet been diagnosed with infertility.

This is also why AMH is genuinely useful for treatment planning, even when it doesn't answer the natural-conception question. It's one of the best available predictors of how many eggs a stimulation cycle is likely to retrieve, which is exactly why a low result, paired with a low antral follicle count, is a completely reasonable trigger for a doctor to raise IVF. Even so, extremely low AMH is not the same as zero chance — data reviewed by ASRM shows live births still occurring, at a reduced but real rate, in IVF cycles started with AMH under 0.16 ng/mL.

None of this should be read in isolation. A proper fertility evaluation looks at age, ovulation, menstrual regularity, prior pregnancy history, tubal patency, and — just as importantly — the male partner's semen analysis. A low AMH is one input into that picture, not the whole picture.

Can nutrition change any of this?

I get asked this constantly, and the honest answer is more limited than a lot of marketing suggests. There is no nutrition intervention shown to raise AMH in a clinically meaningful way, reverse diminished ovarian reserve, or generate new eggs. The number of eggs a woman has is set before birth and declines over her lifetime; that's a biological fact nutrition doesn't change.

What the evidence does support is more modest: certain dietary and lifestyle patterns are associated with markers of reproductive and metabolic health that plausibly support the environment eggs mature in, even if they don't change how many remain. A 2023 systematic review and meta-analysis pooling 11 cohort studies in over 13,000 women found that greater adherence to a Mediterranean-style eating pattern was associated with some improved fertility markers, including in couples undergoing fertility treatment — though the authors were careful to note the evidence still isn't strong enough to be called definitive (Muffone et al., Nutrition Reviews, 2023).

Antioxidant supplementation specifically remains genuinely uncertain territory. A 2020 Cochrane review pooling 63 trials in over 7,700 women found only very low-quality evidence that antioxidants improve live birth rates, and low-quality evidence for a possible improvement in clinical pregnancy rates (Showell et al., Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2020). That's not a "yes." It's also not a flat "no." Any brand that tells you otherwise is overstating the evidence.

Vitamin D is one area where the evidence is more specific: in women undergoing assisted reproductive treatment, a systematic review of 11 cohort studies covering around 2,700 women found sufficient vitamin D status associated with meaningfully higher odds of clinical pregnancy and live birth compared with deficiency (Chu et al., Human Reproduction, 2018). That evidence is specific to IVF/ART populations, not proof about natural conception — but deficiency is common, easy to test, and worth correcting regardless.

Sleep and moderate movement also have real evidence behind them: a 2022 systematic review of prospective cohort studies found consistently short sleep (seven hours or less) associated with lower fertility, and high-intensity activity associated with somewhat lower fertility compared with moderate activity (Zhao et al., Frontiers in Public Health, 2022).

None of this adds up to a fix for a low AMH result. It adds up to a reasonable foundation — the same one I'd want any woman I worked with to have in place, whatever her number, while she pursues the medical evaluation her specific situation calls for.

What I wish someone had told me when I saw 0.10, and then 0.05

• A falling number is frightening, but it isn't a diagnosis of infertility. It's a reason to move toward evaluation, not a verdict on the outcome.
• A scan showing very few follicles is real information for your doctor's treatment planning — it is not proof that a natural pregnancy is impossible.
• Don't spend months trying to "fix" the number. There is no proven way to raise AMH. That energy is better spent on a full evaluation and a plan with your doctor.
• Fertility is not a report card. A low AMH, an irregular cycle, or an unsettling scan is not a reflection of anything you did, ate, or failed to do.
• Look at the whole picture — including your partner. Male factors contribute to a substantial share of fertility struggles, and semen analysis is a standard, inexpensive part of a complete evaluation. If I could change one thing about how we approached this, it would be making sure both partners were assessed from the very start, not assuming the investigation belonged to me because my bloodwork came back first.
• Get professional guidance early, and let it run in parallel with anything you're doing yourself. Medical care and personal health changes work together. Neither should replace the other.

When should you seek fertility help?

ASRM's guidance is a useful starting point: if you're under 35 and have been trying for 12 months without success, it's time for an evaluation. If you're 35 or older, that window shortens to six months. If you already know you have a risk factor — a low AMH result, irregular or absent periods, a family history like mine, or a partner with a known fertility concern — don't wait for the calendar. Ask for an evaluation now.

A full evaluation typically includes ovarian reserve and ovulation assessment, a check of the uterus and fallopian tubes, and a semen analysis for your partner. It should never be only the woman's bloodwork.

A message from Nahid

If you're reading this soon after watching your own number move the wrong way, or after a scan that scared you more than you expected, I remember exactly how that feels — the sense that a report has quietly decided your future before you've had any real say in it.

I can't promise your story will look like mine. I didn't reverse a lab value, and I won't pretend I did. What I can tell you is that the number on your report deserves context, not fear — and that there is real, evidence-based work available to you in the meantime, alongside the medical care you need, not instead of it.

You're allowed to be frightened by a result and still take the next right step. I was. You deserve a plan built around your actual body and your actual results, not a generic list and not false hope. That's the part I can help with, even if I can't tell you how your story ends.

Start your fertility journey with Health Hatch

If your AMH result, your antral follicle count, or any part of trying to conceive has left you scared, confused, or just wanting a clearer plan, you don't have to work it out alone. At Health Hatch, we work with women, men, and couples to build personalised nutrition and lifestyle strategies around their specific fertility picture — reviewed alongside relevant medical reports, and always in support of, never in place of, your fertility doctor's care.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get pregnant naturally with AMH 0.05–0.10?

It's not impossible, but a result in this range reflects significantly diminished ovarian reserve, which is why doctors often start discussing IVF at this stage. AMH alone doesn't predict natural conception with precision — your individual chances depend on age, ovulation, your partner's fertility, and a full evaluation. A fertility specialist is best placed to interpret your specific case.

Does a falling AMH mean I'm entering perimenopause?

Not necessarily, though a declining trend is worth discussing with your doctor as part of a full picture that includes your age, cycle regularity, and other hormone levels. AMH alone isn't used to diagnose perimenopause.

What does it mean if a scan shows very few or no visible follicles in one ovary?

An antral follicle count reflects the number of small follicles visible on ultrasound at that point in the cycle, and it's used alongside AMH to help predict response to fertility treatment. A very low count is significant clinical information, but like AMH, it doesn't by itself rule out natural conception — it's one part of a complete evaluation.

Can diet or supplements raise AMH?

There is currently no proven diet, supplement, or lifestyle change that reliably raises AMH or reverses diminished ovarian reserve. Some interventions may support general reproductive and metabolic health, but "improving AMH" itself isn't something the evidence supports promising.

Should I consider IVF if my AMH is very low and my antral follicle count is low too?

This is a conversation to have directly with a fertility specialist, who can weigh both results alongside your age and other fertility factors. These findings together are a common, reasonable reason specialists recommend moving toward IVF sooner rather than later — but the decision is made with a doctor, not from lab values alone.

Should my partner get tested if my AMH is low?

Yes. Male factors contribute to a significant share of fertility challenges, and a semen analysis is a standard, inexpensive part of a complete fertility workup.

When should I see a fertility specialist for low AMH?

As soon as a low result comes back, regardless of how long you've been trying. More generally, ASRM guidance recommends seeking evaluation after 12 months of trying if you're under 35, or after 6 months if you're 35 or older — sooner if you have a known risk factor.

About this article

This article shares the personal fertility experience of Nahid, Co-Founder of Health Hatch, alongside published research on ovarian reserve and fertility nutrition. It is intended for education, not as individual medical advice, and does not replace a personal evaluation by a fertility specialist. One woman's outcome — including a natural pregnancy after specific personal changes — does not predict or guarantee the same outcome for another person; correlation in a single case is not evidence of causation.

Author: Nahid Khilji, Co-Founder, Health Hatch
Medical/evidence review: Health Hatch Fertility Nutrition Team
Date published: September 3, 2026
Date reviewed: September 3, 2026

Related reading on Health Hatch

• Low AMH and Egg Quality: What the Evidence Actually Shows
• Antral Follicle Count Explained: What Your Scan Result Means
• Male Fertility and Sperm Quality: The Nutrition Connection
• Preconception Nutrition: Preparing Your Body Before You Try to Conceive
• Stress, Hormones and Fertility: What the Research Actually Shows
• Do Fertility Supplements Actually Work? A Look at the Evidence

References

1. Practice Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Testing and interpreting measures of ovarian reserve: a committee opinion. Fertility and Sterility. 2020.
2. Practice Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Optimizing natural fertility: a committee opinion. Fertility and Sterility. 2022.
3. Steiner AZ, Pritchard D, Stanczyk FZ, Kesner JS, Meadows JW, Herring AH, Baird DD. Association Between Biomarkers of Ovarian Reserve and Infertility Among Older Women of Reproductive Age. JAMA. 2017;318(14):1367–1376. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.14588
4. Muffone ARMC, de Oliveira Lübke PDP, Rabito EI. Mediterranean diet and infertility: a systematic review with meta-analysis of cohort studies. Nutrition Reviews. 2023;81(7):775–789. PMID: 36346903
5. Showell MG, Mackenzie-Proctor R, Jordan V, Hart RJ. Antioxidants for female subfertility. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2020. PMID: 32851663
6. Chu J, Gallos I, Tobias A, Tan B, Eapen A, Coomarasamy A. Vitamin D and assisted reproductive treatment outcome: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Human Reproduction. 2018;33(1):65–80.
7. Zhao F, Hong X, Wang W, Wu J, Wang B. Effects of physical activity and sleep duration on fertility: a systematic review and meta-analysis based on prospective cohort studies. Frontiers in Public Health. 2022;10:1029469.